Daily Archives: March 12, 2016

Hope for crab season debated

AR-160319971.jpg&maxh=400&maxw=667Whether the North Coast Dungeness crab season will ever open this season, or even be worth opening at this juncture, depends on whom you ask. Second District California Congressman Jared Huffman recently introduced a bill to provide more than $138 million in disaster relief funds to the financially ailing crab fleet and industries. He said the focus is now about getting the fishing industry through the year, crab or no crab. “This season is gone I think,” the San Rafael Democrat said. “It’s really, at this point, about trying to address the losses and the damage that have occurred.” Read the rest here 13:50

Part of the bottom of the fabled Georgetown Hole will be closed to fishing by 2017

AR-160319858The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council approved in a final vote Friday to close off 3.1 square miles of the offshore fishing mecca, after looking at options as varied as closing off 15 square miles to not closing the Hole at all. Trolling, or fishing off the bottom would still be allowed. The move would reserve the acreage as a marine spawning sanctuary to help restore the lost stock, particularly those huge brood stock “trophy fish” that are rarely, if ever, caught today. Council also voted to close two artificial reef areas totaling about 6 square miles. Read the rest here 12:06

Massachusetts lobstermen want to create in-state processing industry

With two of the top five lobster ports in the state, the South Shore could see newly created jobs and increased income for its local fisherman if legislators pass a law clearing the way for lobster parts to be processed in Massachusetts. The bill to allow shell-on lobster parts to be processed, transported and sold in the state passed the State Senate in January and is waiting on action by the House, possibly before April, said co-sponsor Rep. James Cantwell, D-Marshfield. Approval would allow Massachusetts to compete with Maine lobster processors that are going up against the dominant players globally – lobster meat processors based in Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Read the rest here 10:18

State, federal officials confiscate, sell nearly 3,600 pounds of fish from longline vessel

State and federal authorities seized the catch of a longline fishing vessel and cited seven fishermen for not having valid commercial marine licenses, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a news release today. The Coast Guard cutter Galveston Island boarded the 71-foot fishing vessel Lady Ann Margret earlier this month about 350 miles off Oahu and found the boat’s high seas fishing permit expired last year. The Coast Guard directed the captain to return to port because of expired permit and to fix safety violations. Read the rest here 09:07

Sedgwick lobsterman faces criminal charges, 3 yr suspension after violent ocean confrontation

A Sedgwick fisherman is facing criminal charges and a possible three-year suspension of his lobster license because of a last fall in which he allegedly rammed another fisherman’s boat, shot off a flare gun and intentionally broke a line on one of that fisherman’s traps. Carl W. Gray, 41, is facing a civil charge of tampering with another fisherman’s gear and three criminal charges associated with the Oct. 5 incident. He has been charged with operating a watercraft to endanger and theft by unauthorized taking, both Class E misdemeanors, and a Class C felony charge of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, according to court documents filed in Ellsworth. Read the rest here 08:22

Stonington Maine man pleads guilty to setting fire to lobster boat

judgementA local man has pleaded guilty in federal court to setting fire to another man’s lobster boat, according to a federal prosecutor. Jeremy Eaton, 39, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for setting the fire, which destroyed the fishing boat Heritage on the night of April 16, 2014, according to documents on file in the publicly accessible online document database for U.S. District Court in Bangor. In a prepared statement released late Friday, the U.S attorney’s office for Maine said that on the night of the fire, Eaton walked to the harbor in Stonington, removed gasoline cans from a skiff tied to a dock and then used a small boat to ferry himself and the gas cans to a fiberglass lobster boat moored in the harbor. Read the rest here 08:15